The chairman of the dati leumi Bayit Yehudi party is Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who is also serving as Israel’s Interim Minister of Education – Peretz is reportedly considering compelling all schools, including chareidi and Arab, to fly the national flag

Bayit Yehudi party chairman, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who is serving as the Interim Minister of Education, announced on Wednesday that he is considering compelling all schools to fly the national flag. The statement was made during the official ceremony appointing him minister, Ynet reported, quoting Peretz saying, “I want to see the Israeli flag flying above all”.

According to a law passed in Knesset in 1997, all “recognized” schools are compelled to fly the national flag. This refers to all schools which receive state funding and not necessarily only schools that are a part of the nation’s public-school system.

Ynet also report that Peretz also said, “Due to the many limitationS imposed on a minister in a transitional government, we will now seek measures that do not involve economic costs”, which may refer to the flying of the flag. Whatever the case may be, it will be interesting to see if the new dati leumi minister will seek to compel chareidi and Arab schools to fly the national flag.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)